Discus Agression

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msjinkzd

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Well, I spend alot of time staring at the 75g yesterday. Its inhabitants are 5 Discus and somewhere from 20-25 sterbai cory. This morning I sat and watched the tank again fro some time and noticed that one of the cories had a large "gash" on its head. Then it turned the other way and it had a missing eye!! I can only assume this is from the discus. The tank is heavily planted, I do 3 30-50% wc's a week. They are being fed 4x a day with NLS and bloodworms. Any suggestions? I don't even think I could catch these cories if I tried unless I removed all the plants and wood. I am going to up the frequency of my wc's to help the little guy, he is eating and schooling fine. Is this typical of discus? I guess I just don't think of them as being agressive cichlids. Here is a pic of the 75g, you can see the cories should have plenty of room to hide:
 

pinkertd

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Rach - I have never seen a discus go after any other fish out of aggression except for another discus. Have you witnessed any of the discus being aggressive towards the other discus?
 

pinkertd

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I would more suspect the cory got spooked by something and ran into the driftwood or something like that.
 

msjinkzd

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I do have a bully/leader, the biggest orange discus is always nipping at the other discus, but I have not seen it go after the cories at all.
 

Lupin

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I would more suspect the cory got spooked by something and ran into the driftwood or something like that.
I was guessing this as well. I've never heard nor experienced discus attacking another species before. There's always a first time though...
 

pinkertd

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And notice that even when they bully each other there's never any real body damage being done. I do not think the discus had anything to do with the cory's injury.
 

msjinkzd

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I hope not, that's alot of cories to try and catch. I was just shocked at his general appearance. Thanks for the reassurance that I don't need to immediately catch and move my cories because I have some mutant super-agressive discus who have been taking lessons from the fish tank next door (captain cranky pants the murderous Oscar).

:D
 

pinkertd

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Maybe your Oscar is sleepwalking at night, you know sort of like how you suddenly find a snail in a tank that had no snails?:evil_lol:
 

msjinkzd

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LOL, ,he would have eaten the cory whole though....and messed up all my plants, and done graffiti on the back wall.... :D
 

Hungriee

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Hey Rachel. I have been having the same problem this month. I've been keeping discus for about 8 months. I own 4 discus (2 are a pair). Ive noticed that i've been losing lots of fish lately especially my schoal of cardinals (started about 30- now there is only about 10+). I have a heavily dense planted tank filled with sunset hydros and manzanita wood. Im not sure why my discus been bullying each other once in awhile when the lights go on then after the lights are off they are fine chilling again.

I lost a pregnant spotted cory the other day I found his bones only =( it was too late to grab him out then i did a massive wc. Then I noticed my cardinals were all hiding from the beasty discus who have some nipped. Some of the cardinals have spots of wounds on their sides where they lost a patch of blue or red from their bodies. I'm thinking it was the discus who fought with them or tried to kill them. Good thing they are still alive and hiding.

Im not sure why my discus been acting up lately but for now my gold and blue rams are doing well. I just think they look innocent but they are mean fish with small mouths.
 
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